Marc Tardif
| birth_place = Granby, Quebec, Canada | draft = 2nd overall | draft_year = 1969 | draft_team = Montreal Canadiens | career_start = 1969 | career_end = 1983 }} Marc Tardif (born Joseph Gérard Marquis Tardif on June 12, 1949) is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey left winger who is the leading goal scorer in the history of the World Hockey Association, principally for the Quebec Nordiques. He also played for the Montreal Canadiens in the National Hockey League (NHL). Playing Career Marc played two seasons with the Montreal Junior Canadiens of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The NHL Montreal Canadiens (in the final year the team had the privilege to do so) invoked its right to select two French Canadian players first and second overall to pick Tardif in the first round (second overall) of the 1969 NHL Amateur Draft. He spent most of the 1969–70 NHL season with the minor league Montreal Voyageurs, one of the leading scorers on a team studded with future NHL stars: Jude Drouin, Guy Charron, Guy Lapointe and Pete Mahovlich among them. Marc made the Canadiens for good the following season, playing credibly for the eventual Stanley Cup champions. The 1972-73 season was his breakout season, as he scored 31 goals. WHA Playing Career In 1973, Marc signed with the World Hockey Association, playing with the Los Angeles Sharks. He was the Sharks' leading scorer that season and was named to play for Team Canada in the 1974 Summit Series the following fall. However, the Sharks finished with the league's poorest record and moved to Detroit, Michigan where he played brilliantly before a trade to the Quebec Nordiques. In Quebec, Marc became one of the league's preeminent stars. He finished the 1975 season with 50 goals and added a league-leading ten goals in the playoffs en route to the AVCO Cup finals against the eventual champion Houston Aeros. The next season he led the WHA in goals, assists and points by wide margins and becoming only the second professional player to score seventy goals in a single season while the Nordiques rampaged to fifty wins. Marc's playoff was cut short after an attack by Calgary Cowboys goon Rick Jodzio in which he incurred serious head injuries, leading to one of the first ever cases where a hockey player was charged in a court of law for assault. The next season, Marc was named the captain of the team, and recovered to post another hundred-point campaign while leading the Nordiques to its only WHA championship and followed that up in 1978 with a 154-point campaign (setting a professional hockey record eventually broken by Wayne Gretzky) for which he received his second league MVP award. Marc remained a star when the Nordiques joined the NHL after the WHA folded in 1979, acting as the team's first NHL captain. He retired after the 1983-84 season and the Nordiques retired his number #8 jersey in tribute to their first great scoring star. Marc finished his career scoring 316 goals and 350 assists for 666 points in the WHA, and 194 goals and 207 assists for 401 points in the NHL. Post-Playing Career These days, Marc currently owns a car dealership in Quebec City. In 2010, he was named an inaugural member of the World Hockey Association Hall of Fame. Career Statistics Accolades *Stanley Cup champion — 1971, 1973 (with Montreal) *Avco Cup champion — 1977 (with Quebec) *First in WHA history in career goals, 2nd in points, 3rd in assists and 20th in games played *Won WHA scoring titles in 1976 and 1978 *Won the Gordie Howe Trophy as the WHA's most valuable player in 1976 and 1978 *Named to the WHA's First All-Star Team in 1976, 1977 and 1978 *Named to the WHA's Second All-Star Team in 1975 *Played in NHL All-Star Game in 1982 Category:1949 births Category:Montreal Canadiens draft picks Category:Montreal Canadiens players Category:Quebec Nordiques players Category:Stanley Cup champions